Severance

Cad said:

The other dumb thing - how do you motivate the innie to work? He gets no pay, no rewards, no off time, just work. And he knows for a fact there is a world outside since they wake up in the elevator each morning already dressed and rested.

It's essentially a completely retarded concept without more explanation which they won't do.

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They answered this with Helly in season 1. They beat them down psychologically. That's the whole point of the break room. Their whole existence is in the office. Their only choices are work or torture and they're constantly reminded of that

Cad said:

Without knowing how either severance or reintegration actually works (it was never explained) we can't know this answer.

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I feel like you guys are taking the "mystery show bad" idea way too far to the point you just want things fed to you. The show is asking a philosophical question: "if your consciousness was split, where do 'you' begin and end?" And so far they seem to be portraying things in a very realistic and logical way. HOW severance or reintegration physically word doesn't matter. They're just vehicles to explore more existential questions. And these aren't even far fetched questions. People who have had their corpus callosum severed display some bizarre behaviours that call into question what consciousness even is

didn't know honest trailers did TV shows

Adebisi said:

I just binged out both seasons the past couple weeks. I'd put it in my top 15 shows. Top tier science fiction IMO. Keeping in mind I love slow ass stories.

I'll also note that there's no way I would've been able to watch this one week at a time. Consumed back to back is the only way.

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I agree on the back to back. Season two almost lost me during a few of those middle episodes, but the payoff is definitely worth it.

So many absurd scenes, but this one was in the top.

The wife and I have had a few conversations about the whole premise.

My take is this: The kind of person who could justify to themselves that "It's not really ME", while knowing exactly how they would react to being a slave/held captive is either Evil or completely delusional. You absolutely know that is YOU stuck in a never-ending loop of slave labor. The elevator doors open and you start working. You step into the elevator and the doors close, only to immediately open and you resume work. No sleep, no time to yourself... just work. 24 hours of your day, where every day is 3 straight work shifts, every day of your life. The level of Hell is beyond imagining, let alone living. I just don't hate myself that much, I guess.

Rabbit_Games said:

The wife and I have had a few conversations about the whole premise.

My take is this: The kind of person who could justify to themselves that "It's not really ME", while knowing exactly how they would react to being a slave/held captive is either Evil or completely delusional. You absolutely know that is YOU stuck in a never-ending loop of slave labor. The elevator doors open and you start working. You step into the elevator and the doors close, only to immediately open and you resume work. No sleep, no time to yourself... just work. 24 hours of your day, where every day is 3 straight work shifts, every day of your life. The level of Hell is beyond imagining, let alone living. I just don't hate myself that much, I guess.

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My favorite part of the whole series thus far is Helly putting a noose around her neck and hitting the elevator button to ground floor. I like that stuff more than putting every character in one or two love triangles.

I've only been through S1 the one time but I think the impression the outside world has is that it's more like Philip K Dick's Payday (also the movie with Ben Affleck) where you do a job and the memories are nuked/isolated rather than it being an entirely different person. The lady that speaks for the board mocks someone over use of the term "innie" like it's some made
up bullshit.

edit - I think it's really good that Mark is there because it's 8 hours a day he doesn't have to think about his dead wife. That a broken person would choose such a procedure and job makes it work.

Arbitrary said:

edit - I think it's really good that Mark is there because it's 8 hours a day he doesn't have to think about his dead wife. That a broken person would choose such a procedure and job makes it work.

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I think that's absolute bullshit. You don't miss ice cream if you've never heard of it, let alone tasted it. The inside version had no idea he was ever married, so it's not helping him cope with anything. While at the same time, being aware there is a whole world outside that he'll never get to see/experience. How could you focus on only work with that knowledge? And it's still going to be Hell having no way to compartmentalize your life/take a break when the work world is everything.

While the outside version still knows/feels the loss of his wife while having nothing to take his mind off of it... pouring himself into work, for example. Work is done by "someone else" and those hours are completely shut off to him, so the outside version has exactly the same Hell as the inside version-- absolutely no rest from the sorrow/pain.


I like shows that allow debate. hehe

Rabbit_Games said:

I think that's absolute bullshit. You don't miss ice cream if you've never heard of it, let alone tasted it. The inside version had no idea he was ever married, so it's not helping him cope with anything.

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What I mean is that Mark saw a way to just delete 8 hours per day of his miserable waking life and signed on the dotted line.

season 1 innies also seem way more child-ish and innocent, like dylan at certain points wonder if there is even a civilization in the outside world early in the show which is pretty interesting

season 2 is definitely bumping up hard against the Lost problem, of stuff stops making a lot of sense if you think about it too much. The mythology of the show has been built up so much by fans, podcasts, long form youtubers, forums, social media, etc that it will be almost impossible to satisfy everyone. If in your head you think Severance is a system that will let them bring Kier and other dead people back to life, no matter what the show actually reveals the purpose is, it'll never match what you built up in your head.

stuff like Ms. Cobel being the one that invented severance at age 11 with insane complexity (glasgow protocol in her notebooks, etc) also all makes it really, really ,really hard to take seriously.

I have zero issues with innie Mark "choosing" Helly R over basically dying by taking the exit with Gemma. I just wish we knew a little more about what he wanted and thought he was gonna do, along with more discussion with outie Mark on what he is gonna do after he saves Gemma.

Irving is another issue, the reality of why Irv may be off the show is that the actor seems to really, really hate working in that "closed office" set environment and may not want to come back to the show at all. Will he be back? If not, his entire story arc seems kinda empty. Especially all the mysteries we got with his outie, like why did he write so much, how did he know about the testing floor, who was he on the phone with all the time, etc. It reminds me of Mr. Ecko on Lost, who was an AWESOME character but was written off the show because his mom died and he hated being so far away from family.

Arbitrary said:

What I mean is that Mark saw a way to just delete 8 hours per day of his miserable waking life and signed on the dotted line.

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No, I got that. I just think that delusion would be shattered pretty quickly, replaced by the fact that the price for deleting those hours is consigning yourself to literal Hell because they’re not really deleted.

I guess I just don’t think like most people.

Oh yeah, who was Outtie Irving working with? Did they ever explain that? He was on the phone in the phonebooth with some one saying he had done what they wanted for his Innie, then Burt showed up in his car.